You coat your screen with emulsion, then wait. You don't put the image to be exposed on straight after the screen is coated, you need to wait for it to dry.
Lewis is right. After coating the screen you need to let it dry completely. If not it will rinse of when your washing the image out or the stencil will break down during the print run.
A dehumidifier will help to speed up the drying process.
so when i let it dry, its going to air dry first with out the light source, then when its dry to the touch, put on my image and then burn it with the light source?
awesome... lol.. so thats were i messed up, i was puting th emulsion on, then setting up the image while the emulsion was wet, then burned it,
wow thanks a lot =)
Honeslty that all depends on the humidity in your area. We can dry a freshly coated screenin our screen room in about 5 min tops. We also use a dehumidifier.
Possibly it may take a hour or so.
You can tell when the emulsion is dry my sight and touch for the most part.
man i had trouble again, could you possibly explain the whole process of applying emulsion and the graphics, in other words setting up your screen, thanks a lot.. paid over 500$ for equipment and cant even use it hehe.. realy sucks,
i even read through a lot of posts on how-to's and read books, still cant figure out
man i had trouble again, could you possibly explain the whole process of applying emulsion and the graphics, in other words setting up your screen, thanks a lot.. paid over 500$ for equipment and cant even use it hehe.. realy sucks,
i even read through a lot of posts on how-to's and read books, still cant figure out
1. You clean and degrease your screen using an industry degreaser. Wait for that to dry.
2. Once in a photo dark room, no UV light. You can use a bug light (yellow light) or photo red light. Make sure you have mixed the emulsion in a dark room (if it requires you to mix), if it's premixed, you don't need to mix but still need a darkroom.
3. Coat the screen with one light coat with an emulsion coater (shirt side first), than flip it and one light coat on squeegee side.
4. Lay down horizontal, shirt side facing down. You can lay it on the ground or table, or a box if you don't have anything else. A box keeps the emulsion clean of dust while drying. Make sure you support the four corners on the screen frame so that the emulsion is in mid-air.
5. wait to dry, drying times differ with climate, brand, etc. (need to test for yourself). Touch a corner of the screen and it is dry if its not sticky. Dehumidifier helps because it sucks the moisture out.
6. Once fully dry, tape your transparent film and burn with your light source. The burn time differs with your lightsource, distance, emulsion etc. You will also need to test the burn times for yourself. Different mesh counts usually have different burn times.
7. Once burn is complete, immediately wash your screen (image) with cold water and let sit for a minute. This soaks the image and will wash out easier. Than wash more until image is clean.
Another thing to do, if you want save some time instead of waiting for the emulsion to dry, try coating the screen and leave it overnight to dry. That way the next day you can use it right away.
It sounds like your pretty new at it so just in case you don't know after your screen is dry tape your graphics as you call it to the bottom of the screen on top of the dried emulsion. Now to burn it make sure your light source is burning through the bottom of the screen so as to let you graphics block out your image on the screen. Then immediatly go to the wash out booth and wash it out slowly wityh only a garden hose and spray nozzle. Med strength.
I should begin to wash out after some spraying--sometimes alot of spraying if you overburn it.
You haven't said what kind of emulsion or what kind of light source your using. Let us know and maybe we can help more.
Emulsion 
